Pretend Climate Action Has a Hefty Carbon Footprint, Newsweek Reports
The irony is so thick you could cut it with a solar-powered knife: COP web pages, dedicated to solving climate change, reportedly emit up to ten times more carbon than average sites. (Perhaps they're just getting a head start on 'carbon capture' via endless server farms?) One might wonder if the real objective is to illustrate how much energy it takes for international bodies to *discuss* climate
action, rather than actually *take* it. It’s certainly a bold public education strategy, demonstrating, quite literally, the hidden costs of digital virtue signaling. This environmental inefficiency, confirmed by Newsweek's 'Greenhouse Gas Report' on Cop27 and Cop28 webpages, serves as a fitting metaphor for the summits themselves. Weeks of travel, private jets, and endless talking points, only
for the 'solutions' to inadvertently add to the problem. It’s a classic case of 'do as I say, not as my website does.' How many more digital emissions will it take before someone suggests a low-carbon, text-only webpage for the next conference?